Tag Archives: Seattle Center

Maladroit

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Scream!

I assume that you have heard about the 9/11 attacks on the American embassies in Libya and Egypt? They occurred yesterday and in Libya the American ambassador was murdered. These attacks appear to have been sparked by a disrespectful to Islam movie that was made here in the US. As of writing there is some question as to whether or not these attacks were orchestrated. Suffice to say that this is still a developing story.

On to these shifting sands Mitt Romney leapt and then landed with a thud. Based upon a communiqué from the Cairo embassy, which condemned the offending movie, Romney launched a series of pointed attacks against President Obama. Accusing him of kowtowing to our enemies and there by shaming America. The gist of his argument was that the Obama administration, in this case an unnamed embassy official, apologized to the murders and looters. Timing is everything in life and the fact that the communiqué was made before any violence had occurred and was meant to help diffuse a volatile situation appears not to matter to Romney. Why let the facts get in the way of a good argument, right?

Bring this story home; I spoke with a guy at work about this subject. His argument was similar to Romney’s in thrust, albeit a bit more adroit. His argument was that the incident was all Obama’s fault, because he supported the Arab Spring that led to the death of both Mubarak and Gaddafi, which then opened the door to the unrest that occurred yesterday. If I get his argument right, we should have not have allowed the overthrow of these two brutal dictators, because they were keeping the lid on the Middle East pot for us. To this I say, yeah right. Gaddafi in particular was all about preserving and protecting American life, like he did at Lockerbie.

The faces in the photo that accompanies this post are in the stairwell leading down to the exhibit, “Can’t Look Away – The Lure of Horror Film”, in the EMP Museum, at Seattle Center. We met the man with the frizzy grey hair, who appears in the lower left-hand corner of the picture. He was operating the attraction “On Stage”, which is one part karaoke and one part video game. I wonder if this exhibit spawned the “Rock Band” video game and its ilk?

Giant Creepy Crawlies

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Marlin Peterson’s Daddy-Long-Legs on the Armory Roof

Marlin Peterson’s daddy-long-legs is a new art installation in Seattle. We viewed it yesterday. It was completed just last month. It can only be viewed from the observation deck of the Space Needle. Installed on the roof of the neighboring Armory, these two sixty-foot spiders have taken over Seattle Center. To think that the Needle, which has endured for fifty-years should now fall prey to as pair of gigantic arachnids. I was grateful for the safety cage that around the observation deck, but also doubtful about how effective a deterrent it would be it they chose to climb up. 😉

The only thing I can really hope to shoot for is maybe some tears from a kid or something. – Marlin Peterson

All of the children with us up there seemed more excited rather than scared by the spiders. Strange though, because the daddy-long-legs is the most venomous spider in North America. More poisonous than either the Black Widow or the Brown Recluse. The only reason that they are not a danger to humans is because their fangs are too small to pierce the skin. I don’t think that this would be true with these two.

It wasn’t until we were taking the elevation back down that I learned that they were not sculptures, but rather paintings. Mr. Peterson created these two massive 3-D “harvestmen” or more scientifically, Opiliones, over a five-week period in August. The one in front is a female and a male is following.

It is their shadows that ‘lift’ the spiders off the Armory roof. Peterson made wire models and experimented with lighting to get the shadows right. The shadows’ position is timed for later in the afternoon then we were there, but being there near noon on a brilliant day still made the artwork look pretty realistic. Peterson had to paint without a net, in the sense that he could not duplicate the weathered look of the Armory’s roof. Every time he put paint to roof he had to be certain that he was doing so in the right spot. Here is a YouTube link to a time-lapse of one day in its creation.